Week Thirty Five
To view podium photos, follow our Twitter @daytonamsport
Sandown Park
Thursday Night League - Season 1 Recap
SODI
The SODI Lightweight category proved to be one of the most thrilling and closely contested segments of the championship, featuring an intense battle among eleven regular participants. Ultimately, it was Steve Hannon who emerged as the victor, securing the championship with a series of impressive race victories. Dan Giles closely trailed him, finishing in the second position, making for a fierce competition throughout the season. Luka Nik, a familiar face at Daytona, claimed the third spot, narrowly edging out Connor Elmore by a mere one point. Rafael Blanco-Bush put in consistent performances over multiple rounds to finish in fifth.
In the SODI Heavyweight category, Daytona veteran Reece Harris displayed remarkable prowess, dominating the field across 12 rounds to clinch a convincing championship victory. Marcus Simmons showcased commendable racing skills to secure the second position, while Adam Flockton rounded off the season in third place.
DMAX
The DMAX Lightweight category saw an impressive comeback by multiple championship winner Tom Brown. After missing the first three rounds, Brown stormed ahead, dominating most of the races he entered. Initially, Billy Reymond seemed poised to take the championship, with three consecutive race wins. However, Brown's strong performance over 12 rounds ultimately secured him the championship title. Christopher Taylor finished in third place, thanks to consistent racing across eight rounds.
Robert Guymer secured the DMAX Heavyweight championship title, even though he didn't participate in the final round—a calculated risk that ultimately paid off. Guymer clinched the championship with a three-point lead, thanks to multiple wins earlier in the season. Jack Luggar finished in second place with 247 points, following a first-place finish in his weight category during the final round. Mike Bennett claimed the third spot, consistently delivering podium-worthy performances throughout the season. Joseph Dobbe demonstrated a solid performance, securing fourth place, while the fifth and sixth positions were fiercely contested between Ian Cameron and Adam Palmer, separated by just one point.
Milton Keynes
SuperChamps Season 3 | Round 1
A new season of Daytona's pinnacle Championship launched on Sunday 3rd at Daytona Milton Keynes, and it kicked off in a brand new 'Grand Prix' format which starts with a qualifying round, then a 15-minute shootout and concludes with a 25-minute feature race. Drivers earn the majority of points in the feature race but accrue valuable points in the shootout too.
DMAX Shootout
It was Dom Balasaitis who stuck It on pole position and lead everyone for the rolling start. As the race got underway it was Balasaitis who led from start to finish, Jamie Tiley – Gooden made up a few places to finish in second place in the light class with Matthew Glazebrook in third. In the heavies it was Seb Musika who took the victory with Carl Stephens in second with a very close finish at the line, third place was taken by Gareth Baldwin who was 6 seconds further back.
SODI Shootout
Pole position was taken by Daniel Celi after qualifying, with Harry Asher and Callum Poulter sitting in P2 and P3 on the grid. A very high standard of driving kept all drivers very close during the first couple of laps. As the grid started to spread apart Callum Poulter sped ahead of the pack gaining a 3.3 second lead by the final lap putting him on the top spot. Harry Asher managed to hold his position throughout the race finishing in the second spot, and Daniel Celi keeping podium and finishing in 3rd, 6 seconds between the top 3, a notable battle for 5th with less than a second between 5th and 6th across the line, Charlie Fenton took the position, 5th overall, and first in the Heavies class.
DMAX Feature Race
The DMAX Feature Race started with Jamie Tiley-Gooden on pole with Dom Balasaitis alongside him. The grid order for this being based on the fastest laps the drivers were able to achieve in the shootout race.
Jamie Tiley-Gooden won the race by a whopping 14 seconds with Dom Balasaitis in second place having had an epic battle with #DriveroftheMonth Matthew Thomas in third place on his SuperChamps debut.
However, it was Jack Stewart who made the overall round podium after a solid performance in the Shootout. He was level on points with Matthew Glazebrook but put in a faster best lap. Should be an epic battle ahead between those two.
In the Heavies it was Barry Morris who took the win in the Feature Race with just a second’s lead over Carl Stephens behind him. Aiden Miller followed home in third to take the final step on the podium to finish off the first round of this exciting new season. Carl finished top on the day’s podium after a strong Shootout round.
SODI Feature Race
In the SODI Feature Race, Callum Poulter started on pole, Harry Asher in second and Daniel Celi in 3rd.
Callum and Harry ended up battling throughout the race with Callum leading the race for the first 20 minutes, and Harry sticking close behind. In the last 5 minutes they swapped positions almost every lap with it being anyone’s race until the last 2 laps where Callum managed to take first and hold it all the way to the line. Daniel Celi took 3rd position after some very consistent driving managing to be 9 seconds ahead of 4th position Adam Green.
The Heavies finished with Charlie Fenton beating Tom Illingworth by just 7 tenths across the line and claiming his second 1st position in class over the day.
Milton Keynes
Thursday Night League Season 1| Round 12
The finale of Milton Keynes' inaugural Thursday Night League was competed in very wet conditions in the SODIs and DMAXs.
In the SODIs, amongst many fresh faces, we had our two main Championship protagonists in James King and Harry Asher racing for victory. The two contenders locked out the front row in qualifying and quickly broke away in the race, being the only drivers to get into the 1:46s in monsoon-like conditions.
King went on to take victory by 5.815 seconds over Asher who was fresh back to racing after taking the summer off, he came home in second position, 3.6 seconds ahead of Scott Taylor in third. Another great performance was fourth position, Ashley Mayston-King who drove a very consistent round to claim important points in the standings.
Final SODI Championship Standings:
1st - James King
2nd - Harry Asher
3rd - Lee Schnitzler
In the DMAX finale, it was Lee Schnitzler who recorded the fastest in qualifying, with James King in second and Carl Stephens just behind in third. All three racers were battling for the top three places in the Championship and all was still to race for.
The race got underway and Schnitzler managed to pull out a 10 second lead after three laps with Paul Studd moving up the order to 2nd place, Stevens and King closely followed Schnitzler but couldn’t find a way past even with the many different lines being taken round some of these corners. Niklas Stieper was going round in 5th place but not able to keep up with the leading 4 drivers.
Halfway through the race and Schnitzler's lead had stretched to 16 seconds with his fastest lap 2 seconds better than anyone else on the circuit. Studd raced some great laps in the middle of the race and started to build a small gap ahead of Stephens & King.
After 10 laps King dropped back from Schnitzler & Stephens by 7 seconds and out of contention for the podium.
Ashley Mayston-King drove well in the conditions as did Harry Laugher but settled in to 6th and 7th respectively.
At the end of heavily-soaked race Lee Schnitzler brought it home with a 27 seconds lead over Paul Studd in second and Carl Stephens in third place.
Final DMAX Championship Standings:
1st - Lee Schnitzler
2nd - Carl Stephens
3rd - Jack Stewart